Thursday, December 30, 2010

Last night was the big Team Fortress Classic event! Many thanks to all the wonderful people who came to shoot it out. We managed to keep a 4 on 4 game going for a solid hour and a half before people started to go their own ways. The match was played on the iconic “2forts” map which has been around since Team Fortress was played on the QuakeWorld engine. (And I believe it’s still around in TF2.) Darabka picked up “Player of the week” with his score of 134. Among the usual suspects from the message forum, we were also joined by the server owner (who’s server we ended up piling in) and notable video makers Ben Hall (creator of Video Game Take Out) and Aaron of Rask’s Virtual Classics.

After the game ended, Balzak, Darabka, myself, and the server owner ended up playing, just the four of us, for an extra hour and a half. Many thanks go to Gak, the server owner, for being so awesome about us all showing up at once out of the blue to play in his server.

Next week on Wednesday night, there will be a second game which will be played in the same map. I know a couple of you bought copies of Team Fortress Classic just for this event, so before we move on to a new game, were gonna get some more mileage out of the 2.50 you spent on TFC. See the Steam group website for more info.

Monday, December 27, 2010

This is a mini episode of Tiger Claw Radio which basically just talks about upcoming changes and hosting issues I have been having lately. Winners for the Unreal Tournament & Lylian contest have also been announced. This is a really short episode due to the holiday insanity and the forced hosting change issue. Enjoy it and make sure you get in on the next contest. Featuring the music of Seal of Quality. Get their album here.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Tiger Claw TV now has a Steam group. I see this being really good for us in a couple of ways. First, if we can all get a hold of a real cheap FPS, we can have our Online gaming parties without worrying about Skulltag’s cumbersome update process. Also, there is always at least one person who never gets it working and ultimately misses out on the event. This makes it MUCH easier to protect our games from pros/hackers from coming in and cleaning up the whole group as well. We can have our own game, everytime. Steam also has integrated voice chatting so there is no real need for skype either. Get yourself a steam client and account right away even if you don't have any money to buy games. Hopefully we can contest out some games in the future to make it so everyone can play. I think this is the way of the future gang. Who’s with me? Check out the profile for the group here.

Chiptune artist ‘Seal of Quality’ recently released a new album entitled Fate Patterns. Fate Patterns is a free release which consists of 10 songs weighing in at 23:46 long. This is a pretty dancy album with some hip hop beats mixed in with melodies which manage to be dancy without getting to dark or two run-of-the-mill. Also, some use of digitized vocals and some non-chip instruments thrown in like the synth in the final track “Thor” give the album some flesh to set it apart from pure famitracker zips. There was also some pretty nice chip-arpeggio work in the album. A good example would be “The Purest Feeling” (The eighth track.)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

For the second time, five great indie games are available for a single price. That price is anything you feel it's worth. (Yes, even $0.01) Just remember gang. This is for charity. The games available this time are Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. The games are totally DRM free. The last one wasn't around for very long, so I don't expect this will be either. Grab it while you can here.

I found ‘Dear Agent’ watching Bytejacker’s “Baby Punching Hard Games” episode, so I knew it was going to be a tooth grinder. What we have here is an action themed platforming game with puzzle elements and basic retro-esque stick figure characters. Your stick figure is a secret agent who has recently awoke from sleeping in a cage by a floating face which looks a lot like Al Jolson who always begins by saying “Dear Agent” like he is a swooning high school girl spraying his government instructions with perfume. To top is all off, each message is concluded with “Hugs and Kisses”. Each stage must be carefully maneuvered with a limited amount of firepower. More often than not, the player runs out of ammo before reaching the end causing the player to have to construct a clever plan to do the most damage using the least ammo.

There are a few things about Dear Agent that I really like. First off, the designer went with an elongated playing field. This kind of thing reminds me of the older arcade games that did this. Also, the sprites in this game are really small, so there is plenty of room to play even with the screen being taller than it is wide. Another really great feature of this game is the lava. Lava is found in enclosed pools and you have the ability to shoot open the blocks which hold it, and thus, the lava spills over the stage in a pixilated Pompeii style. Sayonara suckers.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Swarm Racer is a little different than what someone might think just by looking at the screenshots. Yes it is a top-down racing game, no you don’t race a single car against 20 others. You control the entire pack. (Hence the name.) The basic idea is that you cruse up and down the eight tracks collecting shiny objects. When all the objects are collected, the track is complete. It’s a pretty simple formula.

Only two chances left to get your name in the hat for the big holiday contest. Listen for the question of the week and write in to the show at tigerclawradio@yahoo.com Check out the episode here: http://tigerclawradio.podomatic.com/

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Rocky Memphis is a retro side scroller in the vein of the Commodore 64 days. “Commodore 64 sidescrollers must be brown.” Says one poster about Rocky Memphis. The object is simple. Enter the temple, collect all 4000 items, get out of the temple. Yes. 4000 items. That is spread across a map spanning 600 rooms. To be fair though, a lot of the rooms are not that difficult to maneuver and you are given a map which you can access by pressing F1. The difficulty comes into play in terms of navigation. The game is absolutely gargantuan. Also, the passeges are very cleverly twisted and interlocked to make, what feels like a tomb. (on the Commodore 64 anyway.)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Platformerman is a beta game, so it’s no surprise that the game is somewhat unfinished. It has no music like the trailer does. In fact, the game has no sound what-so-ever. So why feature an unfinished game? Well this game is a perfect statement about graphics not making a game. This is a claim we hear from retro gamers all the time. Platformerman proves it. The game is totally devoid of graphics, and yet the gameplay is addictive and the controls are smooth. It’s a really fun game.

The idea is to bomb the red blocks and collect the green blocks. It’s that simple. I would recommend playing some chiptune music while this game is on, but one way or another, do give it a try. One thing that strikes me is the text before and after the match still manage to give the game a setting. You are not a block collecting other block. You are in fact, touring the world. A very blocky version of the world. Whenever this game get's completed, it's going to be one hell of a trip. Get platformerman here.

Episode 53 of Tiger Claw Radio is up now! This was a pretty fun episode to do. I have been so busy with my exams lately, it was really nice to sit down and talk about video games for an hour. This episode also has the information for the big contest. Make sure you listen for that. If you want to email the show, the address is TigerClawRadio@yahoo.com. Check out the latest episode of TCR here.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Its twelve days until the 19th Ludum Dare 48 hour game making competition. Last August was the first time I really payed attention to the Ludum Dare and I must say it was an awesome experience. I had the chance to play incomplete betas watch the fruit and frustrations of real game production as well as enjoy the atmosphere of development. (And not to mention, some of the games were REALLY cool,)

I downloaded a copy of Construct which is a free, open source game development kit, and I have been tinkering around with it. I am hoping to get in on the action this time around. Though I’m sure I won’t be able to produce a game which could be a real contender, this is a great opportunity for anyone to get started in game production. If anyone else whishes to do the same, You can grab a copy of Game Maker or Construct for free, and you have twelve days to brush up on your tutorials before the competition starts.

I have created a new label for my saga of the Ludum Dare so you can follow along as I enter the wild jungle of game development from pre-competition preparations to my inevitable frustration and finally giving up on it like I do on everything. (Hopefully not.)

The competition runs from December 17th to the 20th. Wish me luck fellas.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Real time strategy games stopped appealing to me in 1999 when I first played Command and Conquer online. I was building my army as quick as I could and before I could figure out where to begin my assault, an even bigger army consisting of some type of flying soldier flew in and stomped on my entire base like it was populated by ants. At that very moment, something changed in my brain. A neon sign was flashing the words “Too Complicated” over and over again.

My series of reviews of the mass amounts of indie games I purchased over thanksgiving break continues with Galcon Fusion. Galcon Fusion is the first RTS game I have enjoyed ever since. It came in a five dollar bundle of indie games which was on sale over Thanksgiving. (It usually retails for 9.99 on steam.)

The game is simple. The playing field is covered with planets. The object of the game is to eliminate the enemy by using your colored planets to launch attacks on their colored planets in the form of colored ships which look very similar to the ship from Asteroids. Space triangle attack a-hoy!

Friday, December 3, 2010

GamersGate.com has graciously donated a staggering three copies of Unreal Tournament Game of the Year edition to Tiger Claw Radio to be given away in a contest! This is an awesome game which is very scalable so it will work on most computers. I have really enjoyed our Doom Night events. I will be purchasing a copy of Unreal Tournament out of pocket so hopefully the winners and I can get together and shoot it out. (Along with anyone else who ends up getting the game or happens to have it already.)

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to run the contest, but it's going to be modeled after The Retro League's "fan of the month" prizes. That means you have a month to get in on it, and the winners will be selected randomly. Be sure to listen to TCR this Monday to get the details. Thanks again GamersGate.com!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Searchlight is a platformer game staring an anime looking character who is out to collect all of the treasure chests on the screen thus continuing an everlasting quest to get to the next level. During the game, you guessed it, searchlights are after you and you need to keep away from them. (Because let me tell you. They are baaaad.) The level design shows innovation and lots of thought. Switches can be toggled in order to change the locations of some platforms giving the game a semi-puzzle feel despite controlling like a core platformer.

Searchlight is really fun and easy to pick up. The platforming mechanics are really strong, and the soundtrack is even stronger. Also, one thing that I absolutely adore about this game is that it supports USB gamepads. That seems to be a rare feature in the freeware market. This is one of those games that could quite easily have been an SNES game right out of the box.

The only real downside is having to navigate the download page which is in a foreign language. (Don’t worry. The game is in English.) But the fact that this game only weighs in at 13.2 megs makes up for that. This is one of those must have freeware games. It’s right up there with Spelunky and Cave Story. Seriously. This is an under rated freeware game I can’t rave about enough. I wish I could make this review longer, but honestly, I’m going to go play the game. Peace. (Download Searchlight here.)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Beat Hazard is a dual stick shooter. There is no shortage of those. I ended up with this game because of Steam’s “Indie Pulse Pack” which packed it in with four other games for five bucks. (This game usually retails for 9.99) I must say though, when I actually played the game, I was impressed.

The main gimmick is that when you start the game, you load mp3’s from your music collection. Beat Hazard takes the enemy formations, and your bullet power, directly from the wave patterns of the music. Basically what this equates to is that each song becomes its own unique level. Then, on top of that, there is a large flashy light show which flickers to whatever you have playing in the background.

This is the third version of the website. Finally I have come up with something I can update easily. I'm not really happy with this theme just yet. (There is a lot of unused space on the screen.) However, I do like the blogger system which I think will lend itself to TigerClawTV.com nicely. I'm still working out all the bugs. As you can see, the domain I have is just forwarding you to the blogger page. I'll have to go back and fix that later. For now though, watch for new updates (hopefully) every other day at least.

Right now I am hard at work on completing a Spy Hunter video for Tiger Claw TV. That should be good. Along with that, I have a secret project in the works which should launch sometime in January. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Still working on the new layout. My days on Podomatic are numbered, but as long as I'm still with them, I want the player to continue to be embedded on the main page. Dhalamar from WastedSeconds.com has given me free hosting, so eventually I'll be switching over to having the episodes individually embedded as they come out. (And i'll run it through feed burner so you will be able to get it on iTunes or whatever pod catcher you use.)

While testing continues, watch for this page to become my new website.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Ladies and gentleman, this very well may be the new home of Tiger Claw TV& Radio. I'm still seeking a theme that feels right for this page. I haven't yet made this the destination of TigerClawTV.com so there is no reason I can't rebuild it from the ground up. (I know this current main page sucks real bad.) But with the monstercast over my head, plus finishing the latest Greenleo album, plus the need for more videos, there is little time to work on this page. Anyway, just an update for those of you who decided to check out the sample link.